Help Us Raise Money For Kids During 2013's Extra Life Gaming Marathon

You might be familiar with Game Informer's award-winning Smash Bros. Marathon, but last year the Game Informer community teamed up with Extra Life for a marathon that made a difference. During our 24-hour gaming sprint we raised over $10,000 for charity. This year, we aim to outdo ourselves.

Last year, Team GiO raised over $10,500 for children at Gillette's Children's Specialty Health Care and other hospitals in the Children's Miracle Network. On November 2, we'll embark on another marathon with the goal of raising over $15,000. At 8:00 am central time, we’ll begin live-streaming video feed of the games our team will be playing. Expect to see Game Informer's Tim Turi, Ben Reeves, Jason Oestreicher, and possibly a few other celebrity guests during the stream. Some of us will be playing new releases like Grand Theft Auto V or Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, while others might fall back on old favorites or leaving it up to our viewership to decide.

Like last year, we hope incorporate some fun interactivity with anyone watching the marathon. Some ideas include rewarding big donators with the power to choose what game we play. Will you be kind, allowing us to play fantastic games current or past, or will you be cruel and subject us to broken titles from year's past? Our fate is in your hands. This year, we'd even like to incorporate a live pun tracker, so you can follow along and track our insanity as the day progresses.

So far Team GIO has raised $2,537 towards our $15,000 goal. If you're interested in helping us with this cause, sign up to donate here. You also have the chance to win some prizes by donating or getting others to sign up. You can also follow along to the latest news regarding Extra Life via community member Zachary Pligge's blog series.

Last year's marathon resulted in a rap battle and a GoldenEye slap battle that had some editor's crying, so anything could happen this year.